Josh 19

More cartoons by Josh here.

Fun and games at Wiki

There's lots of fun and games on the discussion page for the Hockey Stick Illusion at Wiki.

Airtime in the USA

Yesterday I did a long live interview for the Dennis Prager show, a syndicated radio programme broadcast from California. I think there is a podcast available. It seemed to go OK although as a sales pitch for my book I could have performed better. Dennis was kind enough to plug it several times.

Also a friendly review from Seth Roberts, who is Professor of Psychology at Qinghua University in Beijing and a successful blogger too.

If only I had a US publisher to enable me to take advantage!

Thought for the day

Does anyone else find it a bit odd that almost all of my big media appearances have been in what would generally be considered left-wing outlets?

• Prospect
• BBC
• The Courier  (I think - can't imagine a right wing paper would sell much in Dundee)

There have been citations in right wing outlets - Spectator, Telegraph, and so on - but the interviews and reviews have all come from the left.  Isn't that strange?

Live debate

The link for the live debate is here. Unfortunately my login information hasn't arrived yet. I hope this gets sorted in the near future!

Update on Apr 15, 2010 by Bishop Hill

Wow, that was pretty intense. Do you know, the time I put in in my first job learning to touch-type came in really handy there.

I think that was OK.

Courier feature

This is the feature about yours truly that appeared in the Dundee Courier a couple of weeks ago.

Climate of change

TAKE AN ice hockey stick and lay it on its side. The now horizontal shaft, according  — while the blade, pointing practically straight upwards, is temperature over the last few decades. Accelerating, running away, threatening the planet.

Click to read more ...

FT letters

David Henderson's letter in the FT yesterday has prompted a couple of responses.

Bob Ward seems to admit that there is a problem with a lack of openness, but maintains that the temperature records are sufficiently rigorous. It seems to me that it is quite clear that the temperature records are not sufficiently rigorous because, as everyone agrees (I think), the surface stations do not meet the standards set for them. Whether the result is affected is another, as yet undecided, question, but "sufficiently rigorous" they most certainly are not.

Mike Post meanwhile thinks that FT readers should get hold of a copy of the Hockey Stick Illusion, an idea which to me seems to be very sound advice.

Wiki on the Hockey Stick Illusion

There is now a Wikipedia article on the Hockey Stick Illusion.

US availability

A couple of people have asked about US availability for the Hockey Stick Illusion. We are currently discussing a possible deal with a US publisher. While these talks are ongoing we are not going to ship any further copies to Amazon in the States.

I am not confident that we will do a deal, because the publisher concerned is talking about very long lead times to get the book to print - as much as a year. I hope we can persuade them that this is not a good idea. If not, we will start to ship to Amazon.com again and will also start work on ebook editions.

Once again, if anyone knows a tame North American publisher, I'd love to be put in touch.

Update: Try here if you are outside the UK.

Dundee Courier

For local readers, there is a full-page feature about yours truly and The Hockey Stick Illusion in today's Dundee Courier. It's not online at the moment.

BBC World Service

I will be on the BBC World Service at 14:05 today. The internet link is here.

I was rather nervous, and I don't think I came over very well, but I managed to get a couple of key messages over:

• they've missed the point of the Nature trick
• they should have interviewed McIntyre.

Update on Mar 31, 2010 by Bishop Hill

That was better than I thought. I think they cut out a bit where I burbled, and I didn't sound as angry as I worried I might.

James Delingpole on the Economist

James Delingpole takes a swipe at the Economist's coverage of global warming, saying some nice things about the Hockey Stick Illusion in passing.

Thanks James!

Global sea ice normal

Global sea ice levels are pretty much in line with their long-term average. (Source: Cryosphere Today)

Uninformed criticism

The Hockey Stick Illusion has now clocked up 24 five-star reviews on Amazon.co.uk, a number which is rapidly approaching the total number of books I expected to sell when I started writing. 

However, on the other side of the pond it's a different story, with two reviewers on Amazon.com now having given me the one-star treatment. Unfortunately, neither of them actually appear to have read the book, one implying that my target is the global warming theory as a whole and the other seeming to think that I have proposed "statistical adjustments". However, I'm sure they enjoyed themselves.

Click to read more ...

Top 100 on Amazon

I've just crept into the top 100 books on Amazon.co.uk, number two in popular science behind Ben Goldacre. I'm also at number 428 on Amazon.com.

Wow!